I just setup my new Aqua One CF-1200 Cannister filter. First thing I need to say is wow, these things are huge. For some reason I had the idea in my mind of them being about a quarter of the size maybe.



Very easy to setup. Wouldn't prime like it says in the manual but I just pulled the hose off an d sucked a moutgul of fish water... and plugged it back in and off it went.

Its very quiet, quiter than the aqua one internal filter and resun hob filter I was using.

Does anyone have any tips on the best way to set these up? I'm stiill cycling this tank, so I popped the filter media from my other filters inside the new one... mind you it was like sitting a baby on a draught horse... tiny little bits of filter foam in the corner of the biomedia tray.

One thing I am a little concerned about is the flow rate. Its a 1200 litre per hour flow for a 40 gallon tank... Thats about 317.006 Gallons (US) per hour. So not quite the 10 times an hour, but the turbulance is quite phenomenal... my poor goldies are going to need to build some major muscles.



Should I try to slow this turbulance down, I have been fiddling a little with the spray bar and by pushing it under water and pointing it back up on a slight angle, the water just breaks the surface creating more surface turbulance and lessing the underwater turbulance a little.

I know water flow is important... but how much is good and how much is bad?

Sorry if this has been discussed before, I have found lots of talk about filters and filter types, media types, etc, but not much about water flow and turbulance.

Also any tips on what kind of media to use? I have just gone with the supplied media at present. Top layer is a filter pad, then ceramic style bio noodles, then carbon. I will take the carbon out eventually I think as I want to grow plants in the tank eventually.

What kind of goldies do you have? My ryunkins ignore the current, it doesn't faze them at all. But I could imagine it would be a little difficult for bubble eyes...

Heck, if my betta can handle over 10x an hour, a goldfish should be able to .

I have a black moor, a fantail and a shubunkin. the fantail and black moor I have had about a year, 2-3 inches... the shubunkin about 6 mnths, he is the smallest but I doubt he'll care.

I have 2 Aqua One CF cannisters. I put the spray bar about 2" below the surface and point upward. It does give a little surface disturbance but the current is minimal, my fish all sleep mid-water.

I just got my aqua one cf1200 canister about 2 weeks ago, i have found the turbulance to be pretty minimal, well compared to my internal filter. I have both in the tank and the goldfish dont care about the current. At the moment i have a total flow rate of 2400L/hr in a 100L tank, it may seem heaps but i'm basically just changing filters, so their both in there until the canister grows some bugs, but i might just leave them in indefinately, because there is basically no more turbulance than with just the internal filter. I have a range of goldfish sizes from 20cm long to 6cm long.

The setup was pretty easy, and the machine itself is super quiet, you wouldn't know it was on unless you touched it and felt the buzz or you had the spray bar above water (which i do, more oxygenation). I can already see muck and slime growing on the intake/output tubes, i havent actually taken it apart since starting it so i dont know how much is growing inside, but then my tank was already fully cycled.

heres a pic of mine http://tbbw.customer.netspace.net.au/tank%20010.jpg, yes i am overstocked, but with over 20x filtration and my new tank will be set up after i'm back from China. I've actually tilted the spray bar up, so that 1/2 is out of the water and 1/2 is in the water, seems to work fine.

cool. Thats basically how I have mine setup now so its just under the surface and on a slight angle up. I can't get over how silent it is, to push all tha water.

My internal wasn't filtering at high enough rate. was only 500l/hr... best filter they had in my town. so it didn't seem to create excessive turbulence. but it also wasn't doing a very god job.